Clean Sleeping Series – Fat Gene Expression & Sleep

The idea that we inherit a certain body type is being challenged more and more in current scientific research. The way our “fat genes” choose to express themselves is in large part determined by our environmental – what we eat, how we move, stress levels, and even sleep.

Yes sleep!

In a recent study conducted by the University of Washington, scientist Dr. Watson and his team looked at sets of twins and tried to figure out if there was a link between the amount of sleep obtained and the associated BMI.

It was found that twins, how have the same genetic baseline, have vastly different BMI’s depending on the number of hours of sleep they were able to get each night.

The twin who sleeps more than 9 hours a night had a genetic contribution to their weight determination of only 32% compared to a 70% contribution for the twin who only got 7 hours of sleep.

Think about it like this; our weight determination genes are there and they are ready to spring into action. The more we sleep, the less of an influence the genes have on our weight because their impact is being suppressed.